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UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The NHL standings this morning will show that the Blue Jackets are still very much in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Taken on its own, their performance yesterday against the New York Islanders showed that the Jackets might not be long for the chase.

The Blue Jackets were shut out by the Metropolitan Division’s last-place team yesterday, losing 2-0 in front of 15,008 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. They put 41 shots on Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, including 33 in the final two periods.

But injury-riddled New York — fresher, faster and sharper from the start — got goals from Cal Clutterbuck and Travis Hamonic, built a 2-0 lead after two periods and handed the Jackets their third loss in four games.

“That was just us getting outworked on the road,” center Ryan Johansen said. “Mentally, we weren’t really ready. I thought our legs were OK, but we just weren’t in the right spots at times. We just didn’t have that focus that we had in the last couple, and they made us pay.”

The shutout loss was the Jackets’ first in 46 games and capped a costly three days, during which the Jackets lost to both New York rivals and dropped from seventh to 10th in the conference.

“We’re right in the dogfight, and this was a game in hand against some other teams,” coach Todd Richards said. “We didn’t take advantage of it.”

The Jackets still have played one fewer game than the New York Rangers, but the Rangers, holders of the third and final automatic playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division, now have a five-point lead.

“It’s just really disappointing,” Richards said. “That’s probably the best word for it. We aren’t getting help from anyone else. We had an opportunity to help ourselves, but we didn’t take that opportunity.”

The Jackets finally got around to testing Nabokov with some regularity during the third period, when they had four power-play opportunities. Otherwise, they appeared sluggish and out of sorts. And the goals they allowed, Richards said, were “bad.”

Clutterbuck hopped out of the penalty box, waded into the slot and snapped a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky at 13:26 of the first period.

Defenseman Travis Hamonic made it 2-0 with a power-play goal in the final minute of the second period. Hamonic, who had scored one goal in 57 games, took the puck from behind his own net straight to the slot in front of Bobrovsky and beat him from 28 feet.

Hamonic was touched just once during his trip down Broadway, a glancing tap of the stick from Jackets forward R.J. Umberger.

The goal was a gift, hand-delivered by a group of Jackets penalty killers with “a lot of crossed wires,” defenseman Jack Johnson said.

“We retreat back and the defense gets a little wide, and it’s basically ‘here you go,’ a breakaway coming out from behind the net,” Richards said.

The Jackets’ power play was no better. It failed to convert six opportunities, extending the fruitless drought to 36.

“Special teams make or break you in these crucial games,” Johansen said. “We needed one or the other to step up, and neither one was very good.”

It is time for an “adjustment,” Richards said.

“This clearly isn’t good enough,” he said. “We got the result that we deserved because we weren’t a good team today.”

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